Sharing some new research

I’m sure that many of you have been keeping up-to-date with the various reports that have been emerging about the impact of Covid on our cultural and creative industries. We know that many of you have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, and so for many this is lived experience. The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, led by NESTA, draws together expertise from the academic and cultural sector to provide independent research and policy recommendations for the UK’s creative industries. Their principal areas of work include: creative clusters and innovation; skills, talent and diversity; IPR, business models and access to finance; arts, culture and public service broadcasting, international competitiveness (led by Newcastle University Business School), and a number of cross-cutting themes.

During the pandemic they, and other organisations including the Creative Industries Federation, have been undertaking research and advocacy relating to the impact of the pandemic on the cultural and creative industries. Today, they have released findings from one of these research projects carried out in partnership with the Centre for Cultural Value, led by Leeds University. The results are devastating. Headline findings report that in the six months following the first lockdown 55,000 jobs were lost from the creative industries, and that the percentage of people leaving creative occupations was significantly higher than in previous years. While job losses and people leaving creative occupations are perhaps, sadly, expected, what this lays bare is the scale of the crisis that has to be faced – it provides considered analysis of the job losses for the creative industries as a whole, and specifically for the cultural sector (which the blog highlights has been most heavily hit), and the impact of the pandemic on the number of hours worked by those who were employed in the sector. We can all think through the potential implications of this on the sector – skills loss, the loss of expertise and knowledge, the impact on our cultural ecology and way of working…as a start. The blog report on the PEC site is the first in a series which will look at the emerging data and will begin to consider what it is telling us. Importantly, the teams are also looking at the lived experience and direct impact on those affected and more will emerge soon. All of this is important in helping us to better understand and support the cultural community moving forward.

Thinking about ‘value’

In November, the Centre for Cultural Value, led by Leeds University, launched its first – and hopefully not last – ‘Festival of Ideas’ over almost two weeks about 1000 people from the cultural and creative industries, community groups, and academia engaged in fascinating discussions on a variety of topics centered around the theme: Whose Culture? Topics ranged from: what culture will look like post-CV19, participation and collaboration, the thorny issue of evaluation, young people and mental health, how to use research to influence policy, and failure. A reflection on the event by the Centre’s Director Ben Walmsley can be found here and, importantly, some sign-posting on what’s next. You can catch up on, or revisit, some of the panel presentations and discussions on the CCV’s YouTube stream – well worth a listen.

Ben’s blog picks up on many of the points that struck me from the sessions: a sense amongst many for the pressing need for change, radical change, in the cultural sector; concerns around power and where power lies within existing structures but also where it could lie were things to be disrupted. There was a recognition that we don’t know a lot of the things we need to know, that there’s a need for embracing failure and adopting risk, and a need to look beyond the data (without disregarding it entirely).

Many discussions were fuelled equally by frustration, imagination and a sense of possibility which, in what were generally 90minute sessions on zoom was quite a point to reach. The sessions I attended were generally comprised of a series of short panel presentations and discussion, breakout rooms with about three people for ten minutes tasked with responding to particular questions, these were then relayed in the chat, and the Chairs did an impressive juggling act of drawing questions from the chat, their own expertise and experience, and from those attending to draw out a closing discussion.

What struck me most, however, was how, in the events I attended, there was a real sense of a cultural community with a range of expertise coming together around shared points of interest and concern. There was no sense of ‘knowledge exchange’ which sometimes plagues events, but much more a sense of collective thinking and a community of practice and purpose – much like we’ve tried to generate through Wor Culture. What was impressive here was that this was global – the 1000 attendees came not only from across sectors (academic, cultural, community and many others) but also from across the world. I don’t think it can be underestimated what an achievement that was and I look forward to doing what we can to support the CCV team as they take their work forward. Do sign up to their newsletter to keep in the loop.

Summer catch up

Sorry to have been rather lax in posting – it’s been a busy summer for us all. Huge thanks to my colleague Professor Richard Clay for hosting the last two Wor Culture events – for further information, and to hear the presentations, grab a cuppa and have a look at our sway summaries which bring together captioned videos of the presentations and notes from the chat and breakout groups.

This blog is hopefully another way we can share ideas, post challenges, thoughts, reflections and provocations about arts and culture in the North East. If you’d be interested in contributing to the Blog please let us know.

Culture Post-COVID19

The need to think and work differently were key themes that ran through discussions at our first Wor Culture event. We welcomed 53 participants from across the culture and creative sectors to discuss how we can support the sector as we transition from COVID19. Presentations were given by Matthew Jarratt from the North East Cultural Partnership on their Recovery and Resilience Plan, a live document and process focusing on leveraging support for the sector from local and national agencies, and Laura Rothwell, Founder and Managing Director of Cystallised who have been carrying out a national longitudinal survey on how we value culture, and how audiences are feeling, on the journey through the current pandemic. Their presentations and a summary of discussions can be found by looking at our ‘past events’. With the largest section of participants opting for our ‘opportunities’ breakout group and feedback requesting a more focused discussion on ‘how to make it happen’, on the actual making of work, that will be the focus of our next session.

The North East has the scale and networks to realise coordinated, collective thinking about the action and changes we need to make. Hopefully this platform can play a part in that.